Practical Automation with PowerShell

Book excerpt: Take PowerShell beyond simple scripts and build time-saving automations for your team, your users, and the world. In Practical Automation with PowerShell you will learn how to: Build PowerShell functions to automate common and complex tasks Create smart automations that are adaptable to new challenges Structure your code for sharing and reusability Store and secure your automations Execute automations with Azure Automation, Jenkins, Task Scheduler, and Cron Share your automations with your team and non-technical colleagues Store and retrieve data, credentials, and variables Use source control solutions to maintain and test code changes Provide front-end UI solutions for PowerShell automations Practical Automation in PowerShell reveals how you can use PowerShell to build automation solutions for a huge number of common admin and DevOps tasks. Author Matthew Dowst uses his decades of experience to lay out a real blueprint for setting up an enterprise scripting environment with PowerShell. The book goes beyond the basics to show you how to handle the unforeseen complexities that can keep automations from becoming reusable and resilient. From the console to the cloud, you'll learn how to manage your code, avoid common pitfalls, and create sharable automations that are adaptable to different use cases. About the Technology The PowerShell scripting language is a force multiplier, giving you programmatic control over your whole data center. With this powerful tool, you can create reusable automations that radically improve consistency and productivity on your Ops team. This book shows you how to design, write, organize, and deploy scripts to automate operations on systems of all sizes, from local servers to enterprise clusters in the cloud. About the Book Practical Automation with PowerShell: Effective scripting from the console to the cloud shows you how to build PowerShell automations for local and cloud systems. In it, you’ll find tips for identifying automatable tasks, techniques for structuring and managing scripts, and lots of well-explained example code. You’ll even learn how to adapt existing scripts to new use cases and empower non-technical users through easy-to-understand SharePoint frontends. What’s Inside Structure PowerShell code for sharing and reusability Store and secure your automations Execute automation with Azure Automation, Jenkins, Task Scheduler, and Cron Store and retrieve data, credentials, and variables Use source control solutions to maintain and test code changes About the Reader For sysadmin and IT professionals who manage backend systems. About the Author Matthew Dowst has over 15 years of experience in IT management and consulting. Table of contents PART 1 1 PowerShell automation 2 Get started automating PART 2 3 Scheduling automation scripts 4 Handling sensitive data 5 PowerShell remote execution 6 Making adaptable automations 7 Working with SQL 8 Cloud-based automation 9 Working outside of PowerShell 10 Automation coding best practices PART 3 11 End-user scripts and forms 12 Sharing scripts among a team 13 Testing your scripts 14 Maintaining your code